A. T. Smith Diary transcript 1845

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A transcription of a 1845 diary in which Alvin Thompson Smith writes about topics such as his daily life living as a settler on the Tualatin Plains; his tending to daily farmwork and chores; his religious life and reading of the Bible; his work at Joseph Gale's mill and his business dealings with Gale; his business dealings with Mr. Thomas New Banks, Mr. Cornelius Gilliams, Mr. Laframboise, Mr. Geiger, Mr. Owensbys, and Charles McKay; his interactions with "Indians;" his contributing efforts to build a bridge at John B. Mills Creek and David Hills; helping a Mr. Naylor build a bridge; his travels to Willamette Falls, Multnomah Island, and "Sovies" (perhaps refering to the Sauvie Island area); and his religious friends Congregational Minister Harvey L. Clark (or Clarke) and P. B. Littlejohn. On July 26, 1845, Smith describes how he "went over to the east plain to vote for sustaining the old Organic law of the territory." He describes how his friend Harvey Clark became the pastor of the local church in July of that year.

Born in Connecticut in 1802, Alvin Thompson Smith, along with his wife Abigail Raymond, was amongst the first Euro-Americans to settle in the area on the Tualatin Plains that became Forest Grove, Oregon in the early 1840s. In his life, Smith was a missionary, a postmaster, a notable participant in the Champoeg Meetings, the builder of a 1856 house in Forest Grove that is today recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as the Alvin T. Smith House, and a contributor to an orphanage that became Tualatin Academy and later developed into Pacific University. Smith died in 1888 at the age of 85. This is one part of a collection of transcriptions of Alvin T. Smith's diaries from the years 1840-1853. The transcriptions, which are likely not identical to the diaries themselves and perhaps summarize some entries, were likely typewritten in the 1970s. The diaries are notable for their near daily entries. The original diaries are held by the Oregon Historical Society (Mss 8).